"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”

Holden's acting and character - just super bland. It's like he's playing "generic guy" character. Some interesting things have happened to him but none of that really comes through in the script or the performance. I mean, him reporting the derelict got all his friends killed, you figure that would make some impact on his character beyond just casually mentioning it once or twice.

There's a backstory to Holden they haven't gotten into yet (can't remember if it even comes up before book 3), but what you don't like about his acting is actually him acting the role as defined in the book. He's pretty much a bland character that shit happens to but he makes the right decisions because he's trying to be decent.

It's just that there's a very narrow gulf between "play the everymane" and "play super bland"

Read the first book and halfway through the second one. The writing really falls apart in the second.

Oh yea, you gotta get sucked into the story to get through the writing that otherwise starts to get in the way. Corey is a very new writer. He starts to get more polished around book 4 (I think book 3 was the weakest iirc).

The only reason I started reading him was before Leviathan was on special and while I don't mind paying for kindle books, I don't like paying more than $4 per book. I consume them too quickly to justify higher costs. So instead I've lowered my standards of quality

Currently going through all of Sanderson's stuff. Actually, after reading the latest Mistborn, I think I've gotten through everything. I'm sure a bunch of you don't like him for whatever reason. But he's got a great imagination, remains pretty self-consistent, and doesn't mind having completely different universes with completely different rules.

It's actually a "they" not a "him." It's two guys writing under a pseudonym, so you will have some variability in the writing style book to book and even chapter to chapter I have noticed.

"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”

Read the first book and halfway through the second one. The writing really falls apart in the second.

Oh yea, you gotta get sucked into the story to get through the writing that otherwise starts to get in the way. Corey is a very new writer.

One half of Corey is. The other half is Daniel Abraham, who is spectacularly good on his own. He did the Long Price Quartet, which is truly phenomenal, and is working through The Dagger and the Coin series -- next book is book 6 and last I think.

Solid opening to the second season tonight. They are really jumbling around the order of some stuff if my (admittedly faulty memory) is any guide.

"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”

Goddamn, that was indeed an excellent double episode. Marred very slightly by having to pause it every 15 mins to explain to my wife what was going on. She really struggles to understand what they're saying.

I did laugh at the breaching pods labelled FedEx

"Bourgeois society stands at the crossroads, either transition to socialism or regression into barbarism" - Rosa Luxemburg, 1915.

Most people probably don't care too much, but I figure F13 may: I really really like the fact that space ship combat at least tries to stick to realistic intertial space physics rather than starwars pewpew.

I should get back to nature, too. You know, like going to a shop for groceries instead of the computer. Maybe a condo in the woods that doesn't even have a health club or restaurant attached. Buy a car with only two cup holders or something.

I also really care about that. And I also really care that they use realistic space travel physics. If you pause it when they're showing charts and graphics of ships in flight and routes etc, it's proper orbital mechanics. Someone done been playing some Kerbals.

"Bourgeois society stands at the crossroads, either transition to socialism or regression into barbarism" - Rosa Luxemburg, 1915.

"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”

They just dropped the name as their next destination, so the place itself will come into play in some way I imagine.

"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”

They did the ending of Leviathan really well even if it is odd in its placement within the tv series.

"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”

They are doing an amazing job with this show. Great version of the start of Caliban's War and they are finally getting Avarasala's character closer to the awesome book version.

"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”

Honestly our week revolves around this show now. It's as thrilling as GoT for me.

I should get back to nature, too. You know, like going to a shop for groceries instead of the computer. Maybe a condo in the woods that doesn't even have a health club or restaurant attached. Buy a car with only two cup holders or something.

"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”

Which season? Season 1 is a bit of a slow burn but Season 2 has been killing it week to week and is worth going through 1.

"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”

Ya, didn't mean to come off like Season 1 was not good. I loved it, but it doesn't have the momentum that Season 2 does and you'd be pretty lost without having seen it.

"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”